Krapp tops Q3 at ETS Netherlands
Christopher Krapp has become the third different driver to top qualifying at ETS Netherlands, the Yokomo driver hitting the top in the third & penultimate round at the Apeldoorn track. With top seed Bruno Coelho once again making an error, this time on his second lap, Krapp would set the pace eventually finishing half a second up on a much improved Marc Rheinard, the Infinity driver having seeded in the second fastest heat. Behind, Yannic Prumper would complete the Top 3 as team-mate Ronald Volker, who took the previous qualifier, opted to save his third set of allocated tyres for the final qualifier. On used tyres Volker would finish well down the order but he goes in the deciding qualifier leading a Yokomo 1,2,3 at the top of the provisional grid standings. After trouble in the first two qualifiers, Viktor Wilck would return to his seeding form and post a P4 for the round ahead of Marco Kaufmann and ETS returnee Michal Orlowski.
‘I’m extremely happy to score a TQ round after a long time’, was Krapp’s reaction to topping the round. The former ETS race winner and runner-up at ETS Madrid earlier this season, added, ‘my car was awesome. I had a bit of luck Bruno had a drama, but anyway I don’t care, I was able to take a TQ’. He continued, ‘It was warmer that time and these conditions suit our car better. In the cold I am still struggling but when it is warm I can push more so I hope it stays warm. We are holding the Top 3 places on the grid and hopefully we can stay up there in the last qualifier’.
Rheinard joked, ‘I just arrived’. Having struggled to find a car set-up, the rain delay yesterday not helping his cause, he said, ‘we are still working on the car. Every run we changed the car completely, big changes, but I think now we found the right direction. In the beginning I was fighting just to make the A-Main but we are improving every run and right now I am fifth with a 7th and 2nd. I have no new tyres left but I will try to improve on the 7th’.
‘Actually the car was good but I made shit’, was how Prumper summed up Q3. The multiple ETS race winner said, ‘I lost too much time in the last three laps. I went wide and in the end I was 1/10th behind Marc. The car is good I just need to improve my own performance. Pitting next to him Volker said, ‘I was on used tyres so I didn’t expect Top 5 but mixing my two sets of used tyres my car felt tweaked’.
Wilck was pleased with his run saying, ‘At least I finished one’. Suffering a roll coming onto the main straight half way through the opening qualifier, the Serpent driver then suffered a belt failure after two laps in Q2. The Swede said, ‘I hope for a clean last one. The tyres (from Q2) should be fine for the last one’. In terms of his car he is still suffering from the car starting out fast but then slowing towards the end. In need of a good result from the final qualifier he said, ‘I think I have to leave it the same because I have to have one more result’.
With his P5 putting him in contention for the hotly contested final spot on the A-Main, Kaufmann said, ‘I’m 11th but I still have one set of tyres left’. The Xray driver added, ‘there are a lot of guys fighting for the last place in the A-Main and I hope not to be BQ like in Madrid’. On his car the German said, ‘It is a little too stable so maybe I will make it a little more loose. It is super close but I am losing time at the start of the run’.
Have not raced ETS this year due to his studies along with a full Euro Offroad Series programme, double EOS champion Orlowski said, ‘I am trying to get back into the groove of touring car but the car has felt good all weekend’. The Schumacher driver continued, ‘I think I got a bad set of tyres for Q1 because the car was completely different but then for Q2 & 3 it was good the same as yesterday’. Suffering a roll over on his P6 run, asked if he felt he had a chance of making the A-Main he replied, ‘I have no more new tyres so I have to run used now’. Behind Orlowski, Jilles Groskamp would set the 7th fastest time.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, Q3 also produced a third different TQ driver will Olivier Bultynck topping the times for Awesomatix ahead of team-mate & Q1 winner Max Mächler. After taking Q2, Jan Rathiesky could only manage 5th. The Scorpion Power System Formula class would produce the first double TQ with Simon Lauter again putting his Tamiya on the top ahead of the Infinity of Jitse Miedema with the big Norwegian Helge Johannessen completing his first Top 3 run.
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